Other Side of Unrequited
by Terapsina
Summary: Part of "Rest of Their Lives" series. "It was weird to see Elena stepping in my shoes and falling for the one person she could never hope to receive the same feelings from. But like I wouldn't have listened neither did she." Elejah
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: The Vampire Diaries and all its characters are not in any way mine, they are owned by LJ Smith and the channel CW. The only thing I own is this particular future of these characters in this story, and I don't get money for that either so even that is questionable to say the least.

AN: The story is part of my "Rest of Their Lives" series. It begins with the moment where Elena pulls the dagger out of Elijah's chest and soon what happened in the show next is changed in places to fit my idea. Alternate choices by these characters lead to different consequences, but everything we learned about the past in the first two seasons still holds true.

AN2: I wrote this because I wanted to see an Elejah story where Elena is the first one to fall in love and so fights for Elijah's heart not the other way around. I don't think I've seen that kind of story out there yet.

O0o0O

O0o0O** Rest of Their Lives **O0o0O

O0o0O **Other Side of Unrequited** O0o0O

"_It was weird to see Elena stepping in my shoes and falling for the one person she could never hope to receive the same feelings from. But like I wouldn't have listened in what she might have said neither did she. And then her unrequited love ended on a happier note than mine and Matt's, how typically 'Elena' of her. If I had witnessed this in my human days I would have been secretly bitter, now I have learned just how exhausting her life can be and am only happy for her… well mostly." – Caroline._

O0o0O

After Elena killed Elijah she never visited him in the cellar that acted as his tomb. She did sometimes miss his quiet, imposing presence and she definitely felt some guilt over breaking her word, but she didn't allow herself the closure looking at him might bring. It had nothing to do with her being afraid to be near him even while he was for all intents and purposes dead and unable to harm her, she was braver than that and so it would make little sense to feel that way. The truth was that a small part of her wanted to pull the dagger out of his heart, and while she resisted the impulse because of the danger the Original might bring to her friends and family after her betrayal, a bigger part knew that sooner or later she would either give in or something would happen and she would need his help. For those reasons she knew that she couldn't be caught anywhere near Elijah before he was awake if she didn't want the cellar door locked and the key permanently around Damon's neck.

The moment Elena finds out Bonnie's intention to die trying to kill Klaus she knows she will wake the only other being capable of killing the malicious Original seeking the breaking of the curse and her death. She watches what she believes is her best friend's death and later finds out that even though Bonnie is still alive she stupidly has no intention to keep herself that way. Elena doesn't hesitate in her carefully silent steps towards Elijah's body.

O0o0O

Elijah had at some point in his life been in love with Katerina Petrova, as far as she knows he might _still_ love her. And for some reason between all the shocks brought to her that day that one is still the biggest, especially because she finds she really doesn't like that piece of knowledge.

If it wasn't for her love towards Stefan she might admit to herself that Elijah could very well be her ideal other half. He has all the qualities she admires in people, he even invokes all the signs her mother used to describe when speaking about her father and quite simply he is too unforgettable to be ignored. But she does love Stefan so there is absolutely no point in thinking about it.

Still, Elena is well aware that she had broken up with Matt because of the lack of fire that relationship brought. She had loved him, he is one of her oldest friends so it was impossible not to love Matt, but thinking about him has never increased the temp of her heartbeat. Grief over her parents' deaths might have been used as an excuse, but she now knows that she would have ended things with him at some point anyway.

And with Stefan there is that spark she missed with her first boyfriend, when she's near him she can feel the heat and her heart doesn't fail to miss a beat when he tells her that he loves her. But despite that the further parts of her mind, the parts she does everything to ignore whisper about how it is all smoke and mirrors and how Stefan is like the knight in shining armor from a Disney version of a fairytale. If Elena had allowed her heart free speech it could have told her how almost superficial their perfect relationship might be, after all she has always secretly hated the damsels in distress.

Finally if she has to think about any of them, she might as well be honest about Damon too. Now with him she is mostly correct about, she really doesn't love him the way Damon wants her to do so. The desire is there, she can even admit it to herself now - despite how it always makes her feel as if she really is a second Katherine, - and she cares about his feelings, but that is all it is. Fire is all necessary and everything, but between her and him, it is _all_ they have. It always feels as if she is extremely attracted to a dear friend. If she ever gifts that heat with control over her the fire will consume her whole and leave only ash, the more time she spends with him the clearer that becomes. She recognizes just how much cruelty Damon awakens in her, even being alone with him makes her more heartless and in his presence she never likes herself that much. She can't turn into another Petrova that destroys the love between brothers.

And sometimes when her thoughts aren't under her control she thinks that Elijah could be _everything_. It feels as if he gives the best of all three other men and then adds something that is his own, something even more than she can imagine or dream up. She had felt that sought after fire the first moment she met his gaze, even if it was hiding behind the terror of that moment. And then she learned how hearing her name on his lips somehow manages to hurt her heart in the best ways possible, and breath sticks in her throat when he smiles in amusement at her daring, and then there is the dizziness that overtakes her when he steps a bit too close. What surprises her is how after he speaks about his past with her she feels the small, but stubborn trace of something that tastes of friendship, but isn't quite that. And ultimately she has never met someone that was a challenge, boys have always been easy for her she understood them, but Elijah – who really can't be called a boy in any sense, - is a mystery. And something has always lured her to unravel those.

If it wasn't for her love towards Stefan, she might have considered that hearing about Elijah's feelings for the first doppelganger has brought out jealousy. But she loves Stefan, so however similar the pang in her chest might seem to be it is something else entirely. Jealousy and Elijah don't even occupy the same century.

O0o0O

"There is another way." Suddenly Damon is in front of Elena again and she is confronted with the frighteningly familiar expression he always wears before doing something rash that will hurt her a second later. The last time Elena saw that level of desperation in his eyes he broke her brother's neck. Despite the alarm bells ringing in her ears she manages to send towards him a sad look for his unwillingness to once again accept her choice in placing trust with Elijah.

"What do you…" and then she sees the veins spreading across the face that looks more demonic with every slow coming moment, she knows what he is planning to do there is no need to finish the sentence. He proves her thoughts correct once his teeth sinks into the skin of his wrist, suddenly for the first time in months she's afraid of him again. "Damon. No!"

"Damon, NO!"

His bleeding wrist is just touching her skin when Damon is already being flung across the room and Elena is looking at the impeccably dressed back of Elijah. She has never felt more gratefulness for his protection than she does at just that moment. She moves her own hand to her face and much quicker than she would have expected from her human reflexes the crimson essence that promised eternal life is being wiped off her lips. She might yet choose to become a vampire, she isn't sure she ever wants to be one, but even then that choice should rest only with her alone. She would really rather die that very evening than start what might become a damned existence because Damon has trust issues.

O0o0O

Being led to the still and dead form of her biological father should cause a reaction, but at first she just rolls her eyes. And then she realizes that he is missing the ring she knows should be adorning his left hand. Then the expected scream really is torn from her throat, Elena might like to pretend that she hates John, but he is family and she can't bear to lose another member of it. By the time Greta's words have sunken in Elena is already sobbing, knowing that he would wake even if as a vampire should help, but it doesn't.

As predicted John doesn't react too well to his transitioning position. She knows that for as long as Elena will live she'll remember the look of disgust that crosses John's face once he realizes why he feels hunger. It is the first and as she'll soon learn last moment Elena feels true sympathy for him, the fact that she might have actually grown to love him as a father in a future that will never come to pass will haunt her nightmares from that moment on.

O0o0O

The ritual is even more excruciating than she had expected. As she stands in the middle of the black circle near the two bloody corpses and grows weak in the arms of Klaus the only thing Elena can think about is exactly how much being fed on by a sadistic vampire slash werewolf hurts.

He doesn't try to be gentle the way Stefan can be, it's even worse than the time Stefan had been almost rabid while first feeding from her. It feels as if Klaus is thoroughly enjoying every single stab of pain he inflicts, she can feel him biting down harder when it becomes easier for her and draw the liquid life slower when it is more agonizing. He _wants_ the pain and fear in her to last as long as possible. Elena can't help the tears that pore down her face, she knows how it feels to break an arm, how painful a stab wound is, but nothing could compare to the slow sensation of dying at the hands of an experienced torturer such as him. She doesn't want to give Klaus the satisfaction of her crying in agony, but in this case there really is no choice in the matter.

'_Oh God it _hurts_. Please make it stop!'_

As more blood leaves her body and enters that belonging to the ancient vampire her eyes close from exhaustion and her thoughts turn away from pain towards the brother of the man who is killing her. Some far away corner of her mind knows just how wrong it is that her last thoughts are going towards Elijah, but she's far too tired to care about what is or isn't appropriate. His smile, even when just in her imagination brings too much relief. Sometimes, especially after the death of her parents Elena wondered what would be the last thought going though her mind on the brink of her death, she couldn't remember thinking about anything except fear after the point where the car crashed into the river, but she knows that she would never have predicted that her last strands of thought would be about _him._

Her memory dances around all the moments where she has seen him, been in his presence or even thought about him. She's hit by the details she hadn't noticed, or had carefully ignored, or forgotten as unimportant. Like the temp of her heart when she first caught sight of him, and the slight thrill of excitement when he leaned towards her, how her lips parted and the tremble that went down her back when he breathed in her scent. She feels once again the nervous energy of the time when he took her hand in greeting, how something in her stomach flipped, and how it had nothing to do with the fear of seeing him in her home. She feels the thrill she experienced when making their deal, she had never felt such power in something seemingly simple. And those few visits he indulged in when he made sure she was alive, well and keeping to her word. And his death, she feels his flesh parting for the path of the dagger she held and the single tear that escaped her at the time explained away as physical pain. And the hundred moments where she had to talk herself out of bringing him back, for no other reason than because it would have been so simple to do so. The long moments dragging for hours before he finally moved, how completely unafraid she was to touch the man she had killed. The sudden blow of _jealousy_ that shook her entire being once he called her _'Katerina'_. And the day that followed, where he in a few hours showed her more of himself than in all the previous months combined. And she is bombarded by the feelings breaking out of her heart every time he showed her the barest hint of a smile. Finally Elena's chest constricts with the effort it takes to acquire yet another breath, it hurts, everything in her hurts, her heart is slowing and the veins in her body cry out for the blood that wasn't even there and all she wants is just one more moment of life. She needs for Elijah to know that she loves him, she can't have realized the changes in her heart just to die without speaking them out loud. God, she hopes his elixir works.

O0o0O

The first thing Elena feels when she regains consciousness is the featherlike softness of the covers that have kept her warm. But the first thought running across her mind is the name that had lulled her to what could have been eternal rest.

"Elijah." The name leaves her lips, but comes out as nothing more than a silent breath of air. Her voice isn't working properly the only thing she can do is cough uncontrollably to manage another inhale and once the arms of Stefan engulf her she is thankful for this inability. But then she opens her eyes and notices the third person occupying the room, the scrutinizing eyes lock hers in a trap, she pales at the realization of what seeing Caroline there means. Her blonde friend has always been the best at lip reading, she still remembers the games the three girls played when they were little and asked Care to tell them what parents and teachers were whispering about. For the first time Elena curses the fact that Caroline's grandmother is deaf and mischievous enough to teach a granddaughter how to read lips. Instead she sends towards her a pleading look that is returned by a raised eyebrow and slightly pursed lips she after years of close friendship instantly translates to mean _'I'm keeping quiet, but don't even think we won't talk about this'_.

She swallows the nervousness and allows herself to calm in her boyfriends arms. The stress of the last days overtake her and she cries for everything she has lost as well as the guilt over being so relieved about being alive while somewhere her father lays dead.

O0o0O

The first time after the sacrifice and the death of Klaus she sees Elijah is in the distance at her father's funeral. He is standing leaning against an old oak tree observing them and most probably listening to the priest reading from a passage in the bible.

She's surprised to see that he doesn't leave through the whole burial. Once the last flower is placed on the grave and everyone starts to leave is when she moves away from the group of her friends and towards him. As always he's dressed in a suit that probably costs more than aunt Jenna earns in a year, and despite the occasion she can't help the attraction she feels when she stops three steps in front of him. She's certain he looks that good in her eyes not only because of the recent revelation concerning her feelings, he is after all very handsome in the eyes of any woman.

"What are you doing here?" Elena winces at the way her words might be viewed as an accusation and quickly corrects herself. "I mean I hadn't expected to see you at my unc… my father's funeral. You didn't even know each other."

"No. But as he became my brother's very last victim I thought it appropriate to attend."

"Oh." She keeps still for a moment for the first time since the making of their deal uncertain in his presence. Then a question that has bothered her since speaking with Bonnie jumps into her mind.

"Elijah? Can I ask you something?"

"I believe you will ask anyway, so certainly." He smirks a little and Elena has to stop herself from blushing. It was easier to be unimpressed by his smile before she knew that she loved him, despite that she manages not to show how much his lips turning upward affect her.

"Bonnie said that Klaus promised to lead you to your family, why did you still…"

"Why I still killed him?" Elijah interrupts and she nods. "Klaus lost all sense of honor a very long time ago, he would never have kept his word. I knew that, and now that I know my family isn't spread across the bottom of the seas I can find them. I do not need the lies of Klaus to bring them back. It might take me some time, but that is the one thing I have never had too little of."

"So you're leaving now?" She swallows the emotions trying to break free, she can't afford to show them yet. She might never be able to.

"Eventually." Elena can't help the smile that breaks across her face, the relief she feels at that word is immense. "I still have my part of our word to keep. You and your friends are still in danger, there are still vampires and werewolves out there that believe your death will break a curse that doesn't exist. Once the danger of that passes I will leave, do not worry Elena the hardest has past."

Elena ignores the pang his words invoke, he hasn't left yet and maybe if she plays her cards right he won't leave at all. Much can change in a few months after all, if she has learned anything since the appearance of Stefan and Damon it's that. Instead of dwelling on the thought of Elijah being gone from her life she shakes away the dreary thoughts and says what she meant to tell him when she first started to walk towards him.

"Thank you." Elena notices the confusion in his eyes and clarifies herself. "For keeping your word. For killing Klaus. For giving me the elixir. And for keeping my friends alive. You didn't have to do all of that to get your revenge, so thank you."

"It was my pleasure Elena. This has turned out to be the most interesting partnership." He extends his arm and she's suddenly reminded of their first official meeting at her house. She smiles and ignoring his invitation for a handshake wraps her own arms around him in the first hug he's probably experienced in a very long time.

"Friends don't shake hands Elijah, after everything I think you've earned to be mine."

O0o0O

Elena is both surprised and a bit uncomfortable to see Elijah laughing while talking with Caroline when she has come to her best friend's house to have the talk she had in the past few days been avoiding. This time she really isn't jealous, but there is a small possessive part of her that doesn't like the fact that the first time she's heard Elijah's laugh she isn't the person to inspire it. Despite the uncomfortable urge to interrupt she can't help to notice the breathy quality his laughter has, it certainly brings forth all the feelings she had been hiding from herself with a new force.

Learning that the ancient vampire she was in love with now was so thoroughly amused by the fact that Tyler obeyed Caroline while being in wolf form was somewhat of a relief, although when Caroline crosses her arms as an answer to her relaxing stance the relief vanishes pretty quickly.

When Elijah leaves Elena is silent for almost half an hour and it is a testament to Caroline's changed character when she doesn't fill it with her usual chitchat, instead she sits beside her in silence and allows her time to compose her thoughts. And then as if receiving a silent prompt Elena starts talking about everything she has felt since meeting Elijah. She talks about things she hasn't spoken aloud to anyone. She talks about how she isn't in love with Stefan anymore, but how she still loves him. She forces herself to admit that she does have feelings for Damon, but nowhere near as strong as she has or even had them for Stefan. And she talks about Elijah, the Original that has changed everything she believed she would feel.

In the end Caroline tells her only one thing, something she already knew herself, but what she needed to hear aloud from someone else.

"You have to break up with Stefan."

The only answer Elena gives is a wince followed by a reluctant nod, she doesn't think she can manage to say anything more. Luckily she finds she doesn't have to, the hug from one of her oldest friends is enough to assure her that eventually everything will be fine.

O0o0O

In the end it's the hardest part. It's one thing to admit that you love someone new to yourself or to one of your two best friends, but to admit it to your boyfriend who you still have feelings for and who you really don't want to hurt is terrible.

The worst of it is that he seems to accept it so calmly, if he had yelled and thrown something, or put his clenched fist through a wall it would be easier. But Stefan isn't doing any of that, he only looks at her with a broken expression and silently listens to her as she admits to her changed emotions. And she hates herself for doing this to him, even if it is the right thing to do.

"It's Damon isn't it?" Hearing him say it in that defeated voice almost breaks her ability to continue, and she's already crying. But at least here she isn't like Katherine at all. For a second she's glad she doesn't have to reply with a yes, because she knows that that one word would break the slowly mending relationship between the Salvatore brothers more permanently than anything else has before. And when she does reply it is almost kind to tell him he's wrong.

"No, I'm not in love with Damon." There she hesitates unsure if she should continue, not sure if knowing will make it worse for him. But Stefan deserves an answer so she gives an honest one. "It's Elijah."

Her words don't make Stefan's heart any less broken, but they mean that he still has a brother. She hasn't destroyed that at least.

She turns around to leave, but remembers the other thing that she has to do to make this breakup final in both their minds. She unclasps the necklace Stefan gave her at the very beginning and silently places it next to him before leaving.

O0o0O

"You are the most fearless human I've ever had the pleasure to meet Elena." When Elijah expresses the thought they are in the middle of one of their comfortable silences and so his voice startles her. A surprised blush colors her cheeks when his words penetrate her thoughts and she feels pleasure at his rare compliment.

"Really?" It's the nicest thing anyone has ever said to her and she's suddenly sure that if he had called her beautiful instead she would be nowhere near so flattered. Ever since she met Katherine she has started to inwardly wince every time someone compliments her looks. She's aware that by the world's standards she's pretty, has always known it, but now whenever someone calls her beautiful Elena's uncomfortably aware that this person would find Katherine just as much so. And for some it even means they were attracted to her doppelganger first. But hearing Elijah's words is more personal. She can't help to be touched, after all Elijah has met countless humans and he still sees something special within her alone.

For some moments Elijah just stares ahead contemplating Elena's question and probably translates her flushed appearance and pleased smile. Elena knows that the man in front of her very rarely fails to notice her reactions. Then his own lips curl into a barely present smile Elena has noticed to be directed only towards her and answers.

"Yes Elena."

O0o0O

Elena has gone into the habit of eating lunch with Elijah. It doesn't happen every day, but at least once a week she joins him at the corner table of his favorite café. It is still unusual to think about how vampires eat normal food, she remembers Stefan explaining how although for a vampire it's unnecessary it helps with the illusion of humanity as well as that the taste for food doesn't change just because of death.

She spends the time talking with him about everything imaginable. And she learns the things she hadn't known before, like how he hates Bach, but enjoys Mozart. How modern art is completely beyond him, but that Picasso really was brilliant, although truthfully unpleasant. About the countries he's been in and the people he's met there, how a very few of those have been unique enough to have left an impression. And she tells him about herself, the little dreams she has, like being a writer.

He's the most fascinating person she has ever met and the more time she spends in his presence the clearer that becomes. He isn't perfect, there really is coldness about him that will always be present, but neither is she and she loves him even more once she figures out that he unlike so many others doesn't see her as such.

And sometimes they don't talk at all. Those time's she might enjoy even more, she doesn't feel a pressure to fill the quiet with meaningless chatter, every word they share is important and Elena can't help to like that. Instead she thinks or observes his movements.

This afternoon she entertains her mind with an old habit that started out as a silly game between her, Caroline and Bonnie when they were twelve. Every boy they ever met was summed up in one word, they did it so often it stuck with her despite the years since then. Matt was sweet. Tyler's a jackass, although the word might not be so fair now that he's changed. Her now dead previous history teacher was a bastard. Stefan was caring. Damon's hot. Trevor was jittery. Klaus could never in her mind be anything but evil. But she had never before been able to choose a single word for Elijah. Elena found him to be too complex, but now as she watches his elegant movements the word strikes her. There's a grace to his every action, and she finds all of them alluring. But when Elena feels herself getting jealous over the cup of peppermint tea nearing his lips she knows she's completely lost. Elijah is sensual.

O0o0O

It took seven months from the time the Salvatore brothers first showed up in her hometown to the night of Klaus' death. Six months after that Elena was celebrating her nineteenth birthday and the friends she had thought would be there with her through everything had come visiting from different parts of the country instead of the few blocks Mystic Falls enclosed. Almost everyone had left the town they had grown up in after the calming of the chaos it had become.

The first one to leave had been Stefan, and she might have felt guilty about it if she wasn't so convinced he would find happiness with the person he joined in the trip. Although it might take some time before that relationship calmed enough to turn healthy.

The two other friends that left were a bit more predictable, after all everyone could see Tyler's growing need to learn about the past of his own species. And there was no way on earth Caroline would have let him out of her sight after the month he had disappeared to god knows where. Then there was the fact that Caroline was obviously falling for him and Elena was hardly surprised when they decided to leave.

She did turn a bit depressed when Bonnie got accepted into Harvard however. She was proud of her best friend of course, but leaving for the best university in America was still leaving. Despite that however she couldn't help the laughter that tore out of her when she found out Damon was set on following. The friendship that had bloomed after he saved Bonnie's life was the center of amusement for the rest of the group. While the two were completely oblivious she and anyone else with eyes knew that eventually they would either kill each other with bare hands or spontaneously start kissing in the middle of one of their arguments. Never before had Elena been so relieved to realize that a man was no longer in love with her.

The most shocking part for her was when Jeremy left the day after his own birthday, she was torn between feeling abandoned by her little brother and being relieved because he would no longer be in the town that had almost killed off her entire family. At least he had the sanity to still be in contact with her, otherwise she would probably have hunted him down and dragged him back by his ear. The thought had entered her mind regardless.

Elijah at least hasn't yet left, although lately she harbors the feeling it won't last much longer. The grapevine for supernatural beings has already been fed the truth about the true origins of the curse and about how the fatal effects of the sun and the binding power the moon possesses has very little to do with magic and much more to do with nature. And she knows Elijah is already looking through countless leads that could unite him with his family. Elena can practically feel the time she has with the man she still loves slipping though her fingertips. She hasn't said anything to him yet, and she knows that if she doesn't soon, she will lose the chance. But how does she tell a thousand year old vampire, that has seen everything that she has somehow fallen in love with him and she really doesn't think it's temporary?

O0o0O **To Be Continued **O0o0O

O0o0O

AN3: I wrote this story as a one-shot, but it became a bit too long so I split it into two parts. I'll publish the second part tomorrow. I truly hope you liked this, it took forever to write, especially the parts that refused to write themselves ;)


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: The Vampire Diaries and all its characters are not in any way mine, they are owned by LJ Smith and the channel CW. The only thing I own is this particular future of these characters in this story, and I don't get money for that either so even that is questionable to say the least.

AN: So this is the other part to this story I hope you will like. Elena and Elijah is my favorite Vampire Diaries couple and I hope I did them justice here. I know I promised to update a while ago, but when I edited this I found too many things I didn't like and the rewriting process took some time. I'm still not completely happy, but this is the best I could do and I needed to finish the story before Elijah returned to the Vampire Diaries and we learned more about his family.

O0o0O

O0o0O** Rest of Their Lives **O0o0O

O0o0O **Other Side of Unrequited** O0o0O

"_I've never wanted for my best friend, my sister to fall in love with a vampire. On paper Elijah might even be the worst possible choice with the only exception being his brother, but then again Elena always saw more in him than the rest of us could. And he did keep to his word. Not even mentioning the simple matter of me having no right to talk in this matter at all. But in the end Elena wanted him and I have never seen her happier than when she told me that she would go with Elijah when he left." – Bonnie._

O0o0O

Her heart is pounding in her chest, the only thing she can hear is the blood rushing through her veins giving Elena that uncomfortable feeling one gets when it feels as if something in her ear is pulsing in sync with that beat. Her eyes connect with his and she knows they are portraying the fear and excitement she is intimately aware of. His eyes are the most beautiful sight she has ever seen and it has little to do with their shape or color, although that by itself is undeniably attractive. What hypnotizes her is the connection that always ties her heart to his when their gazes lock.

Elena doesn't believe in soulmates. She never has and she doesn't ever want to, the possibility of the supposedly romantic concept's existence has always made her depressed. If it was true it would mean almost every sentient being would forever be left lonely, the chances of meeting the other half of a whole were just too minuscule. But even if she refuses to think it true she can't deny that at least her spirit is linked with his, Elena can find no other explanation for why everything within her heart and that inexplicable thing called a soul would pull her towards Elijah so seamlessly otherwise.

The quiet, silent understanding that they are both so good at is calming her while the seconds pass by. She needs to say what she came there to tell, and the courage comes to her when he moves as if to look away.

"I love you." After all this time Elena would have thought it would be hard to push the confession forward, that it would take effort and that her voice would break in the middle of these words. But it's easy, the phrase escapes her as if it was always meant to and Elijah doesn't turn his back as he was just about to.

He doesn't answer, but something in his expression changes and although she isn't sure what that something is her intuition doesn't warn her of imminent heartbreak so she smiles. Even if Elijah doesn't love her yet, he could at some later point in their future and she does know that he cares about her a little already.

Then he unexpectedly leans forward to kiss her for the very first time. His lips touch hers and every nerve ending there lights up like the 4'th of July sending signals of pleasure to her brain. She feels his strong arms wrapping themselves around her waist igniting fire in her chest and stomach, never before has she been so aroused by a kiss, a first kiss. She doesn't inhale until he moves his face away, the emotions awakening were simply too powerful for automatic actions like those. He just gave her the most amazing kiss ever, and she won't let that be the last one.

Elijah is going to leave, but she won't let him leave her behind.

O0o0O

She is typing at her computer, immersing herself into the scenes and people conjured by her own imagination when she feels the eyes drinking in her slim form. Goosebumps appear everywhere on her skin and a small trickle of heat sparks in the center of her belly and slowly engulfs her heart as well, she doesn't have to look around to know who is observing her, but she does anyway. Elena swallows when her own eyes meet his, suddenly her throat turns dry and she shivers at the slightly predatory look on his face. She inwardly curses the need to bite her own lip to stop a moan from escaping, she was supposed to finish the current chapter that evening, but there is no point in trying to now, she doesn't even remember what she was writing about anyway.

"Do you know Elena I have always adored watching you as you write?"

"No. Why?" The question escapes as nothing more than a coarse whisper and her heart doubles its temp, she hates it when it does so, especially because she's so aware of him being able to listen in as it gives away secrets.

"Because Elena," he gracefully stands up from the couch at the other side of the room and slowly walks closer with elegant movements. "It's as if you suddenly occupy a completely different world and your face transforms from merely beautiful into something so bright it's a wonder to look upon. Or touch."

And then he's in front of her, his breath tickling the skin of her face. He moves an inch further, his strong, but infinitely gentle palm caresses against her cheek and their lips meet driving all capacity for thought away.

O0o0O

Her life takes another turn very suddenly, the knowledge of something being wrong is very gradual, but the first clue she gets from Elijah. They are living in a small beach house in Florida, trying to avoid the notice of vampires by staying in one of the sunniest places America has to offer when he kisses her one day in the middle of a conversation. Like ten thousand times before this one her world fades into nothing leaving only him and her. Bright colors explode behind her eyelids, her will to move to some other more comfortable location registers as unimportant when he inhales her scent in the middle of one of their kisses. He freezes, pulls back and leaves.

That alone would have only been noted as confusing, maybe slightly hurtful, but not important except for the fact that it doesn't stop there. It has been years since she started to share a bed with Elijah and he always prefers to sleep with some room to himself, she still isn't sure if that is personal preference or a sign showing how he hasn't fully let her in yet. It doesn't matter, because even though she is never wrapped in his arms when she wakes up he tends to always keep slight physical contact. Sometimes one of his hands touches her own, tangles within the tresses of her hair or is placed on her stomach or back. She is used to that, so it is startling to wake up feeling both of his hands enveloping her and with her head resting under his chin while one side of her upper body lays on top of his. It invokes a pleasant sensation both physically and emotionally, but the sudden change is worrying none the less.

Lately she has noticed as the little bruises and cuts one tends to get in everyday situations last slightly longer than is usual for her, but she lives an active, exciting and sometimes terrifying life and so she notes this and then puts it out of her mind. She has more important things to occupy her days, like the new and unusual behavior of Elijah. She knows him to be a very even minded man on most occasions that don't involve his family, so when he kisses her senseless in one moment and then gives her the cold shoulder the next she starts to worry. She doesn't like the growing amount of time he spends in his office searching for clues on the remains of his family.

Then one day while she goes to dinner with Elijah she is cornered in the restaurants bathroom by a 'ripper', it is unfortunate that she has started to recognize those from other vampires by their eyes alone. She only has enough time to scream out for Elijah when her carotid artery is already ripped open to feed the rabid monster. The vampire loses his head and Elena swallows the potent blood of the oldest vampire alive. Some part of her psyche notes that it takes twice as long as usual for her neck to become smooth again.

The last piece of the puzzle is what prompts actions. She again wakes up wrapped in the safety of Elijah's arms, except this time his head is resting on her chest with his left ear pressed on the bare skin right above her heart. One teardrop runs down between her breasts. She is drowsy and only half awake so the importance of that tear is lost on her at that moment, but a sentence lulls her back to sleep and she will wake up the next morning still remembering it.

"_Elijah never cries."_

The first thing she does after her shower is make a phone call to arrange a meeting with a doctor. This wasn't the first time since she got together with Elijah that her life has been almost lost, but never before had he responded like this.

Elijah is a powerful individual in both the human and the vampire worlds and Elena is reminded of that when only two days later she gets a diagnosis. At the age of twenty seven Elena Gilbert is dying from leukemia.

O0o0O

"Did you plan to tell me, or were you expecting I would die before I found out at all?" Elena is sitting pale faced on the floor of his beloved office, her back against a wall her hands wrapped around her knees in the pose universally recognized as defensive. The question is very obvious and Elijah doesn't require a clarification.

"I would have told you Elena."

"Really, then why didn't you?" Her closed off eyes and facial expression retract nothing from the bite in her tone, it actually enhances just how furious she really is. She has never been this angry with him, never felt so betrayed.

"I was not sure how to articulate the fact that you are dying, Elena. I had thought we would have more time before…"

"Before what? Before I started to attend chemotherapy? Before I had to start looking for a bone marrow transplant. Before I had to choose?" Elena isn't sure if she is angrier because he didn't tell her she was dying or because he hadn't asked to turn her. "I decided a very long time ago that I would eventually turn Elijah. I just never planned for this as a reason."

That was the truth. It had taken her years, but in the end she had chosen to be turned despite all the misgivings she had about it. She just wanted to live a life first, a real one, one where she could experience all the things she would miss out on as a vampire. She knows what love is now, knows what being human means better than she had as that eighteen year old girl she used to be when she first met him. But she would still miss things, important things like a family and children, and growing old.

The decision wasn't influenced by romantic notions. She didn't care about the immortality, she was actually more afraid of it than almost all the other downsides of that future. The strength was meaningless. And still she chose to turn, because she would never be able to live with herself if she stayed mortal and left Elijah to spend what might amount to eternity alone. She knows how hard the last five hundred years were for him, the torture it must have turned into and she won't let the next ones to become just as unbearable. She would never damn herself for selfish and trivial reasons, but she would do anything for him.

"Promise me something?" Here her voice grows younger by years, and she feels as the terrified girl she was when waking up to the news of her parents deaths once more.

"Of course Elena." His voice portrays his honesty, and Elena can read the promise underneath just as well as she could the first time she made a deal with him. Except now she knows he isn't the devil she was convinced he was then.

"Don't let me kill anyone." That is the thing she fears the most. She doesn't ever want human blood on her hands, doesn't want to turn off her feelings with that switch almost all of them try at one point in their long existence. She knows he's the only one that can make sure it never happens.

"I won't Elena. I will do everything in my power to stop that from happening." And she sees a part of the kindness that has surprisingly lived in his heart through more horror than imaginable. He isn't lying so Elena gives him the two words he at that moment probably wants to hear more than anything else. She is right.

"Turn me." Never before has she seen this much relief on his face, it tells her everything about his feelings towards her even if his voice still refuses to do so.

O0o0O

He's dead. Jeremy is dead. Her brother is dead.

She knew this was coming, Jeremy was a human and humans die. He had lived for ninety seven years, it was his time to leave and he had led a very good life. And now he was finally with Anna again, something she knows he had wanted for a long time now. But it doesn't help, because her little brother wasn't supposed to die.

She hates Jeremy for not turning. She hates Elijah for turning her and hates herself for asking him to. She hates the world for the existence of vampires. She hates humans for being mortal and hates vampires for their immortality. She hates everything, especially death.

And then for the first time in years her tight control over the monster within shatters from the grief news have brought. Bloodlust envelops her mind and rational thought leaves her. It's a relief to let go, for a little while.

She killed someone. Just a boy, this wasn't supposed to happen to the boy, she didn't mean to. Just a boy, no older than twenty and she killed him. The redhead was someone's son, maybe a young father, or husband, or boyfriend, or _brother_. Elena's own brother is dead and she killed a boy.

She is scrubbing herself raw in the shower when she hears the pair of footsteps and then the opening of the front door in the hall downstairs. She is out of the spray of the water and running down the staircase the very next second, she doesn't even bother to grab a towel. Still wet and only in her underwear she flies towards Elijah, clamps her arms around him desperately seeking the calm his arms engulfing her body always brings.

"Elena? Elena what happened?" She can't answer him, not then. Terrible sobs are the only sound that leaves her throat. She shakes with the emotional turmoil raging through her entire being. She tightens her hold and clenches her eyes shut, mute. Elijah must have understood her inability to speak and her need for comfort, because he starts whispering nonsense in her ear as he lifts her up in his arms and brings them to their bedroom.

She spends the next three hours sobbing her soul out into his chest, while he just holds her and lets her cry. She is suddenly and intensely grateful for his natural ability to know when to postpone any questions.

O0o0O

He has finally found them. It took him a hundred and fifty years to do so, but he is finally only hours away from being in the same room as his _living_ family. She always knew that eventually this would happen, there was never any doubt in her mind, but to know it and to experience it are two very different things. There are so many thoughts running through her mind, but the experience of walking towards the goal they both have looked forward to for such a long time is so surreal she can barely keep up with them.

Elena has guessed that Klaus had a very sick sense of humor a very long time ago, but she still couldn't quite believe the twisted nature it took to place his vampire family in the location they are currently nearing. She will probably never understand what possessed Klaus to bury them in the Roman catacombs directly under the Vatican.

They reach the place in the tunnel the map they stole from one of Klaus' more trusted lackeys depicts an intersection leading to a fairly large chamber. There is only smooth rock where the entrance should be, but they had expected that. The wall was meant to be enchanted to be unbreakable, but a coven of hired witches has neutralized all active magic in the radius so that wasn't a problem. Elijah hesitates for no longer than one half of a second before he has stepped forward and is already with all his considerable strength hitting the area of the wall that is the only thing standing between him and his family.

It sounds as if an explosion has detonated when the wall crumbles to pieces revealing the entrance to the dark and gloomy room ahead. They simultaneously move forward.

The tunnel is maybe two hundred feet long, it doesn't take even a minute until they enter the mausoleum ahead. And that is exactly what it is, all the walls are decorated with human sculls, it looks as if the only thing keeping the dirt from falling on top of them is the bones that can be seen white against the dark background of earth. Elena has the feeling that instead of using bricks the people that made this part of the catacombs used human remains instead. And in the middle of it are placed eight open caskets showing the deceptively newly dead vampires with daggers in each of their hearts.

Quicker than she can blink Elijah is besides them and is removing one dagger after another. Now the only thing left is to wait, she places her bags that contain liters and liters of bagged blood right next to the ones Elijah dropped when entering the room housing the tragic victims of Klaus.

As she sits down next to Elijah to wait for the awakening of the eight other Originals they came to save she is bombarded by waves of warring emotions. On one hand the sense of accomplishment and happiness for finally being able to mend the broken part of the soul Elijah has carried around for as long as she has known him. There is a bit of sadness there too, because he will no longer be just hers and now that he has gotten back his family he might not need her as much as before. And the always present grief over the deaths of her own blood family hits especially hard now when she no longer has that in common with Elijah. But lastly, the most prominent feeling is the uneasy fear that she hasn't done the right thing by helping Elijah and standing by as he unleashes on the world a group of Originals that might not be any less of a danger to innocents than Klaus was in his time.

But Elena knew what it meant when she started to help Elijah in his quest to reunite a family of Originals. And however high the price, she knows she would have paid it to get back her own long dead brother, mother, father and aunt from deaths inevitable embrace. So Elena knows she had to help him with his, when for Elijah the possibility of success was actually there.

O0o0O

Elena has been together with Elijah for almost two hundred years and in that time she has spent some of it away from him. They are a couple and like any successful relationship some time apart is healthy, even necessary to the survival of ones sanity. But the thing is however long a time they spend separately, be it a day, a month or that one particularly hard year they have always warned each other beforehand or at least left a message to that effect. So when Elijah disappears without a trace for the entirety of twenty four hours Elena gets irritated.

A day later she is getting worried. If they were a normal human couple this would be the point where she would call the police and report him missing, except in her case that really wouldn't work. She _could_ question the seven vampires the man she loves trusts enough to temporarily live with while they deal with the growing coven of witches trying to eradicate them, but she has learned that showing weakness to a vampire is a bit like immersing a bloody wrist into a pool full of piranhas. Instead of committing what might be suicide Elena stays outwardly completely unconcerned, she doubts her ability to stay alive if the vampires decide to use Elijah's absence to revolt.

By the third day without any word Elena is getting angry, other negative emotions flicker through her as well, but anger is easier to deal with than fear. There is the irrational thought worming its way into her brain that Elijah might have run off with the flirty blonde vampire who had tried to attach herself to him as a leach. Elena had of course got rid of that problem by using her vicious inner Petrova, - Katherine would have been proud of the methods involved, - but she couldn't be certain. And it is such a very stupid idea, if there exists a man less likely to cheat on a woman it would be him, after all that would be dishonorable and Elijah has always taken pride in having honor. If he turns up happy and unharmed Elena is going to slap him for making her go through this, not to mention force him to sleep on his office couch. Meanwhile she goes out clubbing to let off some of that steam that is boiling through her veins. Elena knows Elijah might not have approved of that course of action for many reasons least of which are the ones concerning her safety, but all other methods that would make her stop thinking involve bloodshed and her humanity however bruised is still something she prides herself over.

The next two days Elena is just scared. She spends hours in their wing of the manor pacing the length of her balcony her eyes constantly straying towards the road leading to the town hoping to see Elijah driving on it towards her. She replays every possibility that could explain his absence and everything her mind conjures up is a bit more horrible than the thought before. But it shouldn't be happening, Elijah is still one of the most powerful beings on the planet and it had to be almost impossible for something to have happened to him. The problem was that _'almost'_ wasn't good enough for a woman who had used that small chance to her advantage once herself.

On the sixth day since he disappeared she contends with waiting only a little more before panicking completely. She spends it ignoring anything that points to things being wrong, she follows her day as she normally would ignoring the stark absence of a morning kiss, the cup of coffee that should have been on her kitchen table once she goes downstairs. Elena stubbornly pretends not to notice the inconsistencies being alone in the house brings, the things that have become routine in whatever house or country she inhibits at the time and that she had stopped noticing until this moment. Despite that paranoid parts of her psyche still keep close watch over any and all moves made by the pack of allies she is currently forced to share her admittedly large home with. She knows if someone has done something to Elijah one of these vampires is likely behind it.

At the end of the week she does what she has been avoiding since the moment Elena noticed her love gone missing. She does so only minutes after one of the vampires has betrayed something they should have known not to give away. The entirety of the Immortal community with the exception of his family are terrified of Elijah's shadow. That fear has only grown since they learned about him killing Klaus. So no vampire in their right mind would be stupid enough to flirt with his lover of two centuries. However annoying and insulting she thought it to be she knew that trying to seduce her is looked at as suicide so why was Gabriel Visco not five minutes ago playing with her hair and giving her suggestive looks. It could only mean that he wasn't afraid of the consequences and that truth is what sent her politely out of the room and down into the wine cellar below.

There is a safe protected by both technology and magic in the room that holds one of the most exquisite wine collections on the planet. She knows that only she and Elijah are supposed to be aware of that, but years have taught her that just because something is supposed to be a secret doesn't mean it is one. So she needs to check that the object she fears to be missing is still where it is supposed to be. She presses a combination of random numbers and then spills her blood on the keyhole, something clicks into place and she slowly opens the safe. The compartment is empty, the ashwood dagger is missing from its place.

Elena covers her mouth to contain the scream that wants to rip itself apart from her chest and for a moment she is swept away by the anguish the missing dagger brings forth. She would like nothing more than to yell and rage and seek revenge, but she can't afford herself that weakness. There is a vampire that can't be allowed to escape and any sound coming from the basement can alert him to her new found knowledge. She almost marches upstairs to kill Gabriel, but again holds herself back. That vampire would die, but first he would tell her everything he knew and for that she needed help from someone that could extract truthful information quickly.

O0o0O

It had taken exactly seven hours from the moment Elena called Bonnie for help to the second her friend entered her line of sight. That time had been spent sending the majority of the vampires she shared a house with on dummy missions and capturing the idiot who thought he could get away with killing Elijah. She needs to know how someone stupid enough to flirt with her a week after his crime managed to get his hands on a dagger he wasn't supposed to even know about.

Gabriel turned out to be much stronger than she expected, but he lacked experience to use it so once she got close enough she pumped him with enough vervain to weaken even an Original. After that containing the bastard long enough to introduce him with a witch was easy.

Over the last two hundred years her best friend's powers have only grown and when you remember the fact that she started out with the power of a hundred witches to begin with it was unsurprising that Bonnie had become one of the scariest individuals on the planet. Even Elijah's family tended to stay on her good side. Elena is again reminded of that when just half an hour after that they already know what has happened and exactly where she could find her lover.

Turns out Visco was seduced by black witches using promises of power and the impression that the head of the coven was intensely attracted to him. He had brought them the dagger, told them the location of their target and then sat back and waited while they magically immobilized Elijah using the opportunity to drive the acquired thing through his heart.

Apparently an Original vampire possessed extreme amounts of strength, which really didn't surprise her at all. Everything else she learned was new however. Elena learned that when a normal person or vampire was killed the soul left the body it previously inhibited and lost all the mythical power it might have possessed. But an Original's soul got trapped within its immortal shell, it never left, which is why removing the dagger worked and why the body didn't decompose or lose its impervious nature. The witches wanted him dead in the first place so that he would be defenseless when they used him and leached his power for their spells and rituals.

Elena has never seen Bonnie as furious as the moment she learned exactly the purpose of Elijah's death. She knows her friend, knows that if the coven had killed Elijah to remove someone nature saw as an abomination she would have shown them mercy and protected them from Elijah's revenge. But they had done so for personal gain, for power they weren't supposed to possess and so she wouldn't stand in the way of old world justice.

O0o0O

They enter in a middle of a ritual. The sight that greets them is a dark haired woman who is approximately forty years old straddling the still, gray form of her lover and with her hands on top of his pierced chest. Some kind of energy is running up through her arms into her body and she is panting from exhaustion and ecstasy.

Elena feels her face changing and growls in fury. A second later she is running towards the woman and with her own arm around the witches throat pushes her away from Elijah and against the wall. The only thing running through her mind now is hunger and the need to choke the life out of the person who dared to place herself in the position reserved solely for her. The only thing that stops her from killing the savagely attractive woman is being blown across the room and the agony of a forced brain aneurysm.

This is the point when Bonnie enters the fray and simultaneously deals with all six witches that stand in the room. When the pain stops Elena sees all of them pinned to the left wall two feet above ground.

And then the only one she sees is Elijah. The dagger is driven to the hilt and his eyes are still open looking past her, but seeing nothing. The position they are once again both in is familiar, but when she pulled the dagger the first time the sight of him dead hadn't broken her heart. This time although she knows she will talk with him soon enough she feels her soul bleeding. She can't bear the picture he presents her with and so faster than she can think the dagger is in her arms and out of his chest. Now the only thing left is to wait. Her head turns at the sound beside her and she look up to see her longest friend looking at her in sympathy.

She wants to torture them. To look on as they slowly burn alive. To keep their heads underwater till they almost have to inhale. Instead she sits with her arms around Elijah and watches as Bonnie strips them of power and returns it to earth from where it came in the first place. She knows it's more painful for a witch anyway, and she can take her own revenge later, when Bonnie is gone and the love of her life is breathing again.

O0o0O

"I've realized that you love me a long time ago, but I don't think you have." There are no emotions showing on her face, but her voice shakes very slightly.

Elena does know that Elijah loves her, and she knows those feelings are anything but slight. But he treats her as if that isn't the case, as if he is only fond of her company and nothing more. She understands the reason those walls are present, but she is no longer able to live with them there. If only she didn't know that his feelings for her ran deeper than superficial passion. If she didn't feel it in his kisses and see it in the depths of his eyes it would have been easier, it would hurt but it would also somehow be a relief. If only he could admit all that aloud, instead of keeping it locked away from maybe even himself. And she knew of only one way that might change their relationship for the better. If only it didn't hurt so much to implement it.

"Where are you going with this Elena?"

His sharp eyes connect with hers making her momentarily freeze with his apparent displeasure. She narrows her own eyes, it has been a long time since she was intimidated by him and she isn't about to start again now. Instead she crosses her hands in front of her chest and lifts her chin.

"I'm going to leave and you are not going look for me."

There is a growl and the next second her back hits a wall. She doesn't fight to get out of his arms they feel too good, the only reaction Elijah receives is her rolling her eyes in exasperation.

"Let me finish Elijah, this is the deal. You're not allowed to look for me until your ready to tell me how you feel about me, _everything_ you feel about me. Until a time comes when you can't sleep in our bed without me there, when you can't think about anything else but the possibility that I might at that moment be kissing someone else, until your greatest fear is that I don't love _you_ anymore you can't try to find me. I will leave and no one is going to be following me and reporting back to you, no witches will do spells to keep tabs on my life either."

By the time she finishes speaking Elijah is breathing heavily and Elena has lost all felling in her hands. Otherwise nothing has outwardly changed in Elijah's expression.

"And why would you think I would ever agree to these terms?"

"Because if you don't I'm going to run and you will never find me or you're going to have to imprison me in the catacombs below. This way you might still be someone I care about in a thousand years or so."

"You still drive a hard bargain Elena." He steps back and smooths out the wrinkles from his suit. He connects his eyes with hers and for a minute doesn't blink or look away only trying to heighten the tense atmosphere. "I accept your conditions."

A sad smile blooms on her face as she steps closer to the man she has spent the last three hundred and fifty years with, she knows him well enough to know the negotiation wouldn't be reliable until she says the next words and he agrees, "Give me your word!"

"I give you my word." He doesn't look happy with what he has agreed with, but that doesn't matter, what is important is that he has.

Elena leans closer, kissing him with a need that is almost overpowering and before vanishing whispers the words she needs to hear from him.

"Love you!"

O0o0O

Once she leaves she travels back to America. The centuries after her turning have changed it somewhat, but the bigger cities are still there, and it is the bigger cities she needs now. She can be an anonymous nobody between the huge numbers of humans, invisible.

Over her years as a vampire she has learned the best ways to hide from her own kind, - and while she doesn't have to give much effort in avoiding Elijah because of his promise - there are some Originals she would rather not meet. She could have gone to one of her old friends, but they would be watched as she hadn't forbidden Elijah from sending out lookouts and even ignoring that she doesn't want them to know what she is doing and for what reasons. She wants her friends to be on speaking terms with the man she loves and telling them that he never once admitted to his feelings for her in all the years they have spent together would be a bit counterproductive to that goal.

Instead she buys a number of big apartments in different highly populated cities across the continent and starts her life alone while waiting for Elijah to come to grips with still having human emotions.

It is the first time she needs to make a background for herself by herself and to then stick to it religiously after. Having always been near Elijah since her turning she has never had to worry about it much. Still she learns quickly and soon even finds enjoyment in constructing the life of Elle Graham.

Elle has recently gone on a brake with her husband after they married when she was nineteen. She is a writer and divides her work between her own novel and ghostwriting. The rest is carefully selected truths twisted to make sure she still recognizes Elle as herself, but so it wouldn't be obvious to anyone searching for Elena Gilbert.

O0o0O

She really misses Elijah. The bed she sleeps in feels wrong and empty. She hates not being able to slide atop his six hundred year old desk when he is working on another of his latest obsessions and interrupt his higher thought processes. She also has the nagging thoughts about whether _he_ is kissing someone else. Elena hadn't planned to be affected by everything she wishes he would feel with her gone, but it doesn't come as a surprise once those nagging thoughts are born.

Still she has no intention of being the one who caves first, if she does she could look forward to the next centuries going the same way the previous had passed. Elijah made her happy, but his behavior made her lonely too, and she didn't want to be lonely with the man she loved.

O0o0O

Elena had been ready to wait hundreds of years if she had to, she knows now how time seems to pass faster the older you get. And Elijah is almost ancient so she knew it wouldn't be a quick wait the way it would be for humans or young vampires.

So it is a pleasant surprise when she enters her apartment and is enveloped in the sweet smell of jasmine coming from the thousand little white flowers littering her floor only five years later. It is her favorite flower and there is only one man she has ever told that. She sees him standing by her piano waiting for her arrival. Elena freezes in place and guardedly looks on as he comes closer stopping only a step from her. Hope is growing in her chest and the scent from his cologne is mixing with jasmine making her dizzy and heartsick at once. She viciously pushes it away, she can't afford to be disappointed.

"Hello Elena! I have missed you since the moment you left my sight. I should have told you about my feelings for you from the moment I first became aware of them. I never should have let you leave. I have of course regretted it ever since. And I cannot deny that I would like nothing more than to rip out the hearts of any man you have kissed since our last meeting."

"And?" A smile is already gracing Elena's face, but she still needs him to finish, needs to hear those words.

"And you are the single most beautiful person I have ever met. You have been a vampire for more than three centuries and you are still the best humanity has to offer. And Elena, I do very much love you."

"Good." Tears are running down Elena's face and she barely manages to lean forward without starting to cry earnestly. It might have taken hundreds of years, but her Original has finally said the fraze she has longed to hear for eternity and she can finally add that one seemingly unimportant word to her own. "I love you too."

O0o0O **The End** O0o0O

O0o0O

AN2: I know that as far as we know in this show drinking vampire blood can cure a human of any illness, but for now it looks like the blood hurries up the mending process so rapidly that it's hard to die. Leukemia is caused by the increase in white blood cells and I don't think drinking super blood would kill those off. In the interests of this story vampire blood can cure a human of any harm caused by outside influences, cancer isn't caused by that so it can't.

AN3: I've spent a lot of time writing this story so I would appreciate any thoughts you have on this work. Were Elena and Elijah in character? Did the story seem plausible? Did I make any major mistakes? Reviews and constructive criticism will be greatly appreciated. Compliments too ;)


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